Chesapeake Energy 2011 Annual Report Download - page 14

of ways: we will reduce energy costs, create more
jobs, contribute to a cleaner environment, create
more wealth with higher incomes and enhanced
government revenue streams, and reduce our
present foreign oil import bill. Furthermore, we
will be able to reposition our foreign policy as we
become increasingly independent of OPEC.
Imagine an America with the lowest energy
prices in the industrialized world, with millions
of new, high-paying blue- and white-collar jobs
created as we build a larger infrastructure for oil
and natural gas drilling, producing, processing
and transportation while also developing a new
value-adding natural gas fueling infrastructure. It
has been decades since any industry in the U.S.
has been able to promise job opportunities of this
magnitude to millions of Americans, especially
blue-collar workers who have suered the most
during the de-industrialization of America and
the globalization of the world’s economy during
the past 30 years.
Despite the burdens imposed by increasing
federal regulation, the oil and natural gas industry
can almost singlehandedly turn the U.S. economy
around, and Chesapeake will be at the forefront
of this movement. For example, just in the past
two years, Chesapeake has directly created more
than 2,400 blue-collar jobs and 2,000 white-col-
lar jobs and tens of thousands of additional jobs
indirectly. As an added benefit, more than 700 of
the Chesapeake jobs have been filled by veterans
of our military services.
IMAGINE AN AMERICA NO LONGER
RELIANT UPON OPEC
It’s a little known, but frightening, fact that
America exports approximately $1 million per
minute to oil producers around the globe. Over
the course of a decade, that totals $5 trillion —
the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the
world. It’s completely unsustainable and unnec-
essary because there is more natural gas in the
U.S. than there is oil in Saudi Arabia. America
can either ignore this opportunity and bankrupt
itself importing OPEC oil or it can make the bold
move to take advantage of the shale gas and
unconventional oil resources Chesapeake and
a handful of other companies have discovered
in the U.S., restoring America’s economy to a
growth engine second to none in the world.
Further imagine what it would be like to be
able to simply say “no” to OPEC oil or, better yet,
“To heck with OPEC!” We’ve not been able to do
that since the early 1970s. However, despite the
12 | Letter to Shareholders
Aubrey McClendon, Chairman
and Chief Executive Ocer,
and Je Mobley, Senior Vice
President – Investor Relations
and Research, accepting the
Industry Leadership Award
and Deal of the Year Award
at the 13th Annual Platts
Global Energy Awards Pro-
gram in New York.
CHESAPEAKE
RECOGNITION
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annual fuel cost savings. Such savings make the
up-front investment even more attractive. One
can only imagine the benefit to America’s con-
sumers if the trucking industry makes this transi-
tion, as lower fuel costs mean lower costs for all
products. Trains, planes and ships won’t be too far
behind either.
IMAGINE A STRONGER,
MORE PROSPEROUS AMERICA
Today the market is providing powerful economic
signals for the transition to natural gas. As it oc-
curs, our nation will become stronger in a number